Finned tail-piece



Nov. 29, 1955 c. J. WERNER FINNED TAIL-PIECE Filed Feb. 24, 1951 INVENTOR. C 0L V/IY J- WEE/YEW United States Patent Olfice 2,725,233 Patented Nov. 29, 1955 F INNED TAIL-PIECE Calvin J. Werner, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application February 24, 1951, Serial N 0. 212,657

2 Claims. (Cl. 273-1065) This invention relates to a simplified tail piece and the method of producing it. t

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a simplified tail piece providing fins and adapted to be secured to a body.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a tail piece for a body, said tail piece having two pairs of oppositely disposed fins and being of a light weight but rigid construction, capable of being produced commercially at a minimum cost of time and material.

These objects are accomplished by forming a hollow core, four fin, tail piece from a single sheet of metal by first punching a blank of predetermined size and configuration from a sheet of metal and bending said formed blank to provide a pyramidally shaped, hollow core having an outwardly extending fin at each sloping corner thereof.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following. description, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a flat view of the blank first punched from a sheet of metal.

Fig. 2 is a side view of the said blank after the first bending operation has been completed.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the device after the second bending operation has been completed. This sectional view is taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 is a View of the open end of the device as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an end view of the completed device.

Fig. 6 is a side view of the completed device.

As mentioned heretofore the present simplified tail piece is stamped and formed from a sheet of comparatively thin and stiff metal. Fig. 1 illustrates the blank of predetermined size and configuration after being stamped or punched from the sheet of metal. This blank, as shown in Fig. 1, has a central square portion 20 as defined by the broken lines 27 in this figure. An outwardly extending arm is provided at each of the four sides of this square central portion 20. These arms are indicated by the numerals 21, 22, 23 and 24, illustrating that arms 21 and 23 extend in opposite directions from opposite sides of the square central portion 20, while arms 22 and 24 extend in opposite directions from the other two sides of the square central portion 20. The arms are of a peculiar shape and may be described as consisting of one portion shaped like an isosceles triangle and the other portion as a quadrilateral configuration, both portions however being integral. The isosceles triangularly shaped portion is defined on the one side by the edge 25 of the blank, when referring to the arm 21, the opposite corresponding side of the isosceles triangularly shaped portion being defined by the broken line 26, the base line of this portion 21 being defined by the broken line 27, which defines one side of the square shaped central portion 20. The quadrilaterally shaped portion of this arm 21 is defined on one side of the broken line 26, on another side of the edge 28 of the blank, on the third side by the edge 29 of the blank and on the fourth side by the edge 30 of the blank. Thus, the outline of the complete arm 21 extending from the one side 27 of the square shaped central portion 20 of the blank is defined by the dash or broken line 27 and the edges 25, 28, 29 and 30 of the blank. The dash or broken line 26, indicates a line of bending in the first forming operation of the tail piece. Arms 22, 23 and 24 are identical with the arm 21, the first bend line in these arms 22, 23 and 24 being respectively indicated by the broken lines 32, 33 and 34. a

After the blank shown in Fig. 1 has been stamped from the sheet material it is placed in a die to perform the bending operations at the dash lines 26, 32, 33 and 34 of the respective arms 21, 22, 23 and 24. This bending operation moves the quadrilaterally shaped portion defined by the edges 28, 29 and 30 in the arm 21 of Fig. 1 and the other similar portions of the arms 22, 23 and 24 out of the plane of their respective arm portions of the blank into angular relation thereto, as shown in Fig. 2. This angular relation in the present instance is substantially 47, as shown in Fig. 2. These bent up portions, referred to previously as the quadrilaterally shaped portions of the arm, will eventually provide oppositely disposed, outwardly extending fins for the tail piece.

When this second operation, or really the first bending operation of the device is completed, the device is placed into another forming die which performs the second bending operation. In this second bending operation, a right angle bend, in a direction opposite to the first bending operation is made along the four lines 27 defining the central square portion 20 of the blank. The Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the blank after completion of the second bending operation. In the sectional view, Fig. 3, the arms 21 and 23 are shown bent along lines 27 into right angular relation with the base 20. The arm 22 is shown with its quadrilateral portion 36 and the arm 23 with its quadrilateral portion 37. In Fig. 4, which is an open end view of the device shown in section in Fig. 3, the base portion 20 is shown with its arm portions 21, 22, 23 and 24 all bent at right angles relatively to the base and the quadrilateral portions 36 of arm 22, 37 of arm 23, 38 of arm 24 and 39 of arm 25 bent relatively to said arms.

At this stage of the formative operation of the tail piece, its attachment to the element 40, shown in broken lines in Fig. 3, is most conveniently made in order to avoid formation of any impeding bodies or surfaces. As shown in Fig. 6, the fiat base portion 20 is placed upon the end of the element 41) and spot welded thereupon, this spot weld generally being made by the application of the welding stick to the inside surface of the base portion 20 of the tail piece. This method of attaching the tail piece to the element eliminates any undue accumulation of impeding areas about the outside edge of the tail piece if Welding along the outside were made instead of the spot weld just described.

Assuming that the element 40 is now attached to the formation, the next step in the operation consists of placing the fin carrying element 49 in a fixture which, when operated, grasps each quadrilaterally shaped portion 36,

shaped like an isosceles triangle, meet at the center point marked 50 and thus form a hollow, pyramidal-like coreextending integrally from the fiat base 20. Therefore, as shown in Figs. 1 and 5, the quadrilaterally shaped portion 39 of arm 21 extends from and along the edge or corner of thepyramidally shaped core which edge or corner is formedby contiguous alignment of the bent edge 26 of arm 21 and the edge 54 of arm This quadrilateral-1y shaped portion 39 of arm 21 is therefore one fin that extends from the edge of the pyramidal-1y shaped core. The similarly quadrilaterally shaped portion 96 of arm 22 extends from and. forms a tin along the meeting edges of arms 21 and 22, the same portion 37 of arm 23 provides the fin extending from the edge of the pyramidal core formed by the meeting of the contiguous edges of arms 22 and 23 while the quadrilaterall-y shaped portion 38 of arm 24 forms the fin extending from the meeting edges of the arms 23' and 24 The Fig. 6 shows a side view of the finned tail piece attached to the element 40;. 1

When the finned tail piece is made of a comparatively stiff sheet metal the tail piece will maintain its configuration as shown in Fig. 6. However, where it is necessary to insure against accidental displacement of the respective arms, a spot weldmay be made at the juncture point 50- of the apexes of the several triangularly shaped arms 22 forming the hollow pyramidal core, whereby any accidental displacement or disfiguration of the portion of the tail piece is substantially avoided.

The tail piece as illustrated and described in the present invention, may, if the fins are of proper angularity, be used as an air circulating means. The tail piece may also be used as a stabilizer if the fins are diametrically aligned and placed upona body to be used as a dart or missile, the aligned fins of the tail piece then stabilizing the tail end of the body when the device is hurled through space.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A one piece sheet metal finned tail-piece com prising, a multi-sided base portion, a triangularportion in the form of an isosceles triangular extending from each side of said base portion as an integral one piece extension thereof with the base line of said triangular portion coextensive with the side of said base portion from which it extends, anda' quadrilateral portion inthe form of a trapezium extending from the same side of each of said triangular portions as integral one piece extension thereof with one side of the quadrilateral portion substantially coextensive with the side of the triangular portion from which it extends and adjacent coextensive sides connected with said one side by acute angles, said triangular portions each being disposed angular to the base portion with adjacent sides of the triangular portions in abutting relationship,- said quadrilateral portions each being disposed angular to the triangular portion of which it forms an extension.

2. A one piece sheet metal finned tail-piece comprising, a flat multi-sided base portion, atriangular portion in the form of an isosceles triangle extending from each side of said base portion as an integral one piece extension thereof with the base line of said triangular portion coextensive with the side of said base portion from which it extends, and a quadrilateral. portion in the form of a trapezium extending from the same side of each of said triangular portions as integral one piece extensions thereof with one side of the quadrilateral portion substantially coextensive with the side of the triangular portion from which it extends and adjacent coextensive sides connected with said one side by acute angles, said triangular portions each being disposed angular to the plane of said base portion with adjacent sides of the triangular portions in abutting relationship, said quadrilateral portions each being disposed angular to the triangular portion of which it forms an extension with diametrically opposite quadrilateral portions in substantial planar alignment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,293,869 Murray et al. Feb. 11, 1919 1 ,520,131 Jacob Dec. 23, 1924 2,064,845 Moray et al Dec. 22, 1936 2,494,026 Anderson Jan. 10, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 498,418 France Jan. 10, 1920 499,984 France Feb. 27, 1920 353,638 Great Britain July 30, 1931 370,615 Italy Apr. 24, 1939 

